Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘honored’ to become supreme court’s first Black female justice – as it happened

The Pentagon has gone on the record in dismissing Russia’s denial that it launched a missile attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, earlier that killed at least 50 people.

“Our assessment is that this was a Russian strike and that they used a short-range ballistic missile to conduct it,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in an afternoon briefing from the defense department.

“It is, again, a piece of Russian brutality in the prosecution of this war and their carelessness for trying to avoid civilian harm.”

An anonymous defense department official said, unofficially, earlier in the day that the Pentagon believed Russian forces used an SS-21 Scarab missile in the strike, but that the motivation for the attack was not clear.

“We are not buying the denial by the Russians that they weren’t responsible,” the official said.

At least 50 are dead, including four children, and another 87 wounded after the “monstrous” strike on about 4,000 civilians at the railway station as they waited for trains to evacuate them from the city in eastern Ukraine.

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One other snippet from this afternoon’s White House press briefing: the Biden administration says it is seriously mulling a federal gas tax holiday to help bring down prices at the pump.

“It is certainly on the table, and certainly something we continue to consider,” press secretary Jen Psaki said.

“We have seen a number of states do that and it can have an impact about 18 cents [per gallon] I believe. Our primary focus to date has been taking steps to increase supply and get more supply into the global marketplace. It remains an option under consideration.”

The president ordered the largest release of oil reserves in US history last month to try to bring gas prices down, but critics say gas companies were slow to pass savings on to consumers.

On Friday, the average national cost of a gallon of gas was $4.14 , according to the AAA, barely three cents lower than one month ago.

Psaki divulged that she and other Biden administration officials were “ugly crying” on the south lawn at this afternoon’s White House reception for the new supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“I was with [the president] before when he was doing his final review of his remarks and what he was reflecting on was the number of people, whether people who work at the White House, people who are part of his every day, stewards or others who have commented to him how significant this moment is,” she said.

“History can be heartbreaking and many days it has been. History can be exhausting, and many days it has been. And history can be joyful. Today was a joyful day in history. And that’s certainly how the president was.”

As for her own tears, Psaki said she would try to avoid a repeat in the briefing room in answering a question about Biden’s demeanor ahead of the celebration.

“I’m going to try not to ugly cry about this day, which we were all doing on the south lawn,” she said.

The missile attack on a railway station in Ukraine, which killed at least 50, is “another horrific atrocity committed by Russia,” the White House says.

Press secretary Jen Psaki made the statement at her afternoon briefing, saying the attack on the station in Kramatorsk fitted a pattern of indiscriminate aggression from Russian president Vladimir Putin’s military.

“What we have seen over the course of the last six weeks, or more than that, has been what the president himself has characterized as war crimes, which is the intentional targeting of civilians,” Psaki said.

“This is yet another horrific atrocity committed by Russia, striking civilians who are trying to evacuate and reach safety. We’re going to support efforts to investigate the attack as we document Russia’s actions [and] hold them accountable.

“Obviously the targeting of civilians would certainly be a war crime and we’ve already called a range of the actions we’ve seen to date a war crime, but we’re going to be supporting efforts to investigate exactly what happened here.”

Citing “no time for complacency,” Joe Biden has ordered the deployment of a US Patriot air defense system to Slovakia to replace a similar missile system that country has donated to Ukraine.

Biden hailed the swap deal between the allies in a statement from the White House released on Friday lunchtime.

The Ukraine president Volydymyr Zelenskiy and his defense officials have been vocal in their requests for western military equipment to help repel Russia’s invasion.

The White House statement reads:

Since the outset of my administration, the United States has placed the highest priority on delivering critical military capabilities to Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russian aggression. The entire world has now witnessed the effectiveness of those weapons, as courageous Ukrainian forces have used them to repel the Russian attack on Kyiv, keep the skies of Ukraine contested, and deliver severe blows to the Russian military.

In addition to US-produced weapons, we have also worked to facilitate the transfer of capabilities from our Allies and partners around the world. I want to thank the Slovakian government for providing an S-300 air defense system to Ukraine, something President Zelenskyy has personally raised with me in our conversations. To enable this transfer and ensure the continued security of Slovakia, the United States will reposition a US Patriot missile system to Slovakia.

Now is no time for complacency. The Russian military may have failed in its objective of capturing Kyiv, but it continues to inflict horrific acts of brutality on the Ukrainian people. As the Russian military repositions for the next phase of this war, I have directed my Administration to continue to spare no effort to identify and provide to the Ukrainian military the advanced weapons capabilities it needs to defend its country.

Jackson invoked a number of historical civil rights figures as she closed her moving address to the attendees on the White House south lawn.

“I am also ever buoyed by the leadership of generations past who helped to light the way, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Justice Thurgood Marshall [the first Black supreme court justice] and my personal heroine, Judge Constance Baker Motley [a former district court judge in New York and state senator].

“They and so many others did the heavy lifting that made this day possible. And for all the talk of this historic nomination and now confirmation, I think of them as the true path breakers. I’m just the very lucky first inheritor of the dream of liberty and justice for all.”

Breaking down in tears, she acknowledged the power of the moment:

“To be sure, I have worked hard to get to this point in my career and I have now achieved something far beyond anything my grandparents could have possibly ever imagined. But no one does this on their own. The path was cleared for me so that I might rise to this occasion.

“And in the poetic words of Maya Angelou, I do so now while ‘bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave. I am the dream and the hope of the slave’,” Jackson said, quoting Angelou’s famous poem Still I Rise.

“This is a moment in which all Americans can take great pride. We have come a long way toward perfecting our union. In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the supreme court of the United States.

“It is the honor of a lifetime for me to have this chance to join the court, to promote the rule of law at the highest level and to do my part to carry our shared project of democracy and equal justice under law forward into the future.”

Ketanji Brown Jackson is pledging to defend the constitution and uphold the rule of law when she succeeds the retiring liberal supreme court justice Stephen Breyer this summer.

Pausing sporadically to dab at tears, she said her decades of experience would guide her in her new role.

“I’ve dedicated my career to public service, because I love this country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free,” she said.

“I also understand from my many years of practice, as a legal advocate as a trial judge, and as a judge on a Court of Appeals, that part of the genius of the constitutional framework of the United States is its design, and that the framers entrusted the judicial branch with a crucial but limited role.

“In every instance, I have done my level best to stay in my lane and to reach a result that is consistent with my understanding of the law and with the obligation to rule independently, without fear or favor.

“I am humbled and honored to continue in this fashion as an Associate Justice of the supreme court of the United States, working with brilliant colleagues supporting and defending the constitution and steadfastly upholding the rule of law.”

Biden is warming to his theme of a moment in history.

“We can turn our children and grandchildren to say, ‘I was there. I was there at one of these moments’,” he said.

“My fellow Americans, today I’m honored to officially introduce to you the next associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The president was also full of praise for the new justice, her qualifications, and her poise through a torrid confirmation process.

“After more than 20 hours of questioning, nearly 100 meetings, she made herself available. Every single senator wanted to speak to her and spoke for more than just a few minutes, answer their questions in private as well as before the committee,” he said.

“We all saw the kind of justice she’ll be: fair and impartial, thoughtful, careful, precise, brilliant, a brilliant legal mind with deep knowledge of the law. And the judicial temperament, which was equally important in my view. That’s calm and in command.

“So many Americans can see that Ketanji Brown Jackson brings a rare combination of expertise and qualifications in the court. A federal judge who has served on the second most powerful court in America behind the supreme court, a former federal public defender, the ability to explain complicated issues and the law in ways all people expected.”

Biden also paid tribute to Mitt Romney, and his two fellow Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who also voted for Jackson to make her confirmation a bipartisan event.